I started to meditate on the concept of flow. Why? For what I know, getting into the "zone" is where our time would be well spent; an experience where we are expanding just beyond our existing skillset. This place seems to be where a lot of our meaningfulness is found.
What seems to kill flow for me is hesitation. "Should I do x or not?" It seems like if we have an option to stop moving, it becomes a temptation. This seems to be the case especially outside ones responsibilities. All necessaries are done - what next?
Having to even ask such questions seems to be at the heart of the problem: hesitation. There's nothing wrong with stopping and asking oneself what should be the next following step, but if this is the case regularly day in day out, it might drain mental energy and raise stress levels when facing with uncertainty. Uncertainty of how to cope with oneself and surroundings.
You see, I'm not exactly sure how much I should be working. Emotions sometimes tell me not to, but they are not always to be trusted, because they are low resolution decision making tool by design, by nature. The problem arises when these response mechanisms activate when the threat is nonexistent or greatly lesser than thought (or felt).
The reason though why there is such a range with individuals' response sensitivities, is that it is not obvious what the right response is, it being heavily context dependent. Heavy neuroticism is useful for survival in unstable conditions and surroundings: being happy and sociable doesn't go far in an environment where sticking your head out for a moment gets you shot. Note that nature doesn't care if you're feeling fine, just that you'll survive. Luckily though, nature also provides positive emotion, but just enough as to keep you moving forward in the hopes of getting more of it.
Some random thoughts I've had in my mind. Been thinking I should write more again. We'll see...
I'd say neuroticism at its most useful under conditions where the threats are not immediate as opposed to where they are immediate and obvious. People with high neuroticism have a tendency to worry a lot. Highly neurotic individuals tend to have future orientation because they tend to imagine potential future threats. For example, the cold temperature climate that we live in tends to select for neuroticism. In contrast, the wet tropics seem to select for a happier, opportunistic temperament. That's because a lot of the time the killers in the wet tropics are of the sort humans were able to do very little about prior to modern medicine or they were natural disasters like powerful storms. Such killers tend to keep the population levels low relative to resources needed such as food, which can be grown throughout the year, or shelter. In contrast, in a cold temperate climate, you and your kids will starve in six to nine months if you do not take action now and store sufficient food when it's autumn. That threat is far from immediate but you have to imagine it and you have to respond to it with dread to motivate you to work now to keep it from happening.
Makes sense what you're saying.
I'm all emotion, except when I'm not. I find emotion leads us perfectly to where we need to be as long as we channel that shit well. It indicates stuff to us, like anger tells us we are holding something that we wanna say or do back, and depression tells us our focus isn't right. And so if I follow my emotions but don't let them take control entirely, I can find that flow state pretty easily. I can lose it just as easily too but I'm getting better.
What kills the flow for me is having too many things I want to do. They all pull at each other and I end up staying in the same place. Gotta choose a priority, and then I figure it out.
Yo! We should stay in touch!
I agree that channeling emotions well will lead us to a better place.
Should, I haven't been very good in engaging here in the online world lately though.
Poshing flow:
Proudness to ask questions of which we need the answer is common in humans most especially I for example